This is for those who dont understand why Trump won. Democrat controlled Blue states are dying, its a mass exodus out of CT,CA,NY,IL,NJ. People are fleeing to TX,TN,ID,SD,NC,SC,FL all lower tax, lower cost of living, conservative leaning states. The Blue states are taxing their residents to death, property taxes out of control in NJ and NY. The Northeast continues to experience a moving deficit with New Jersey (63 percent outbound), New York (63 percent) and Connecticut (60 percent) making the list of top outbound states

And the blue states are just becoming more and more concentrated with liberals. I laughed hard when I heard that in some areas of Los Angeles there were reports of people waiting for 2 hours to vote. What for??? It was a foregone conclusion that Hillary would win California. Go ahead and "rock the vote" all you want. It doesn't matter. In fact Hillary won by 4.3 million votes. California is still 22 electoral votes regardless of how concentrated the liberals are.

Dust4Vomit wrote:And the blue states are just becoming more and more concentrated with liberals. I laughed hard when I heard that in some areas of Los Angeles there were reports of people waiting for 2 hours to vote. What for??? It was a foregone conclusion that Hillary would win California. Go ahead and "rock the vote" all you want. It doesn't matter. In fact Hillary won by 4.3 million votes. California is still 22 electoral votes regardless of how concentrated the liberals are.

Hillary made same mistake in 2008, when she ran against Obama where in many states, she won before General Election, and was forced out.

Dust4Vomit wrote:And the blue states are just becoming more and more concentrated with liberals. I laughed hard when I heard that in some areas of Los Angeles there were reports of people waiting for 2 hours to vote. What for??? It was a foregone conclusion that Hillary would win California. Go ahead and "rock the vote" all you want. It doesn't matter. In fact Hillary won by 4.3 million votes. California is still 22 electoral votes regardless of how concentrated the liberals are.

Hillary made same mistake in 2008, when she ran against Obama where in many states, she won before General Election, and was forced out.

And the dumb ho abandoned the swing states in the final days of her campaign due to her arrogance. She wanted to run up the popular vote and put "icing on the cake" so to speak for her big electoral college blowout victory. LOL

Dust4Vomit wrote:And the blue states are just becoming more and more concentrated with liberals. I laughed hard when I heard that in some areas of Los Angeles there were reports of people waiting for 2 hours to vote. What for??? It was a foregone conclusion that Hillary would win California. Go ahead and "rock the vote" all you want. It doesn't matter. In fact Hillary won by 4.3 million votes. California is still 22 electoral votes regardless of how concentrated the liberals are.

Hillary made same mistake in 2008, when she ran against Obama where in many states, she won before General Election, and was forced out.

And the dumb ho abandoned the swing states in the final days of her campaign due to her arrogance. She wanted to run up the popular vote and put "icing on the cake" so to speak for her big electoral college blowout victory. LOL

Yes California completely cucked just so unbearably left wing, protest free speech in the universities known for free speech LOL, protest oil drilling that provides energy Independence, support illegals over their own citizens. High taxes to boot.

Californians fed up with housing costs and taxes are fleeing state in big numbers
More Californians are moving from the Golden State, particularly lower-income residents, although even middle-class residents are saying goodbye.
The trend is a symptom of the state's housing crunch and, for some, high taxes.
Census Bureau data show California lost just over 138,000 people to domestic migration in the 12 months ended in July 2017.
Lower-cost states such as Arizona, Texas and Nevada are popular destinations for relocating Californians.

more and more they are fed up with the high housing costs and taxes and deciding to flee to lower-cost states such as Nevada, Arizona and Texas.

"There's nowhere in the United States that you can find better weather than here," said Dave Senser, who lives on a fixed income near San Luis Obispo, California, and now plans to move to Las Vegas. "Rents here are crazy, if you can find a place, and they're going to tax us to death. That's what it feels like. At least in Nevada they don't have a state income tax. And every little bit helps."

Senser, 65, who previously lived in the east San Francisco Bay region, said housing costs and gas prices are "significantly lower in Las Vegas. The government in the state of California isn't helping people like myself. That's why people are running out of this state now."

Based on the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey data, "lower income Californians are the ones who are leaving, not higher income," said Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of research and consulting firm Beacon Economics in Los Angeles.

He said housing is the chief reason people are leaving California, pointing out there are frequently bidding wars for what limited inventory of homes is available.

A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll of Californians last fall found that the high cost of living, including housing, was the most important issue facing the state. It also found more than half of Californians wanted to repeal the state's new gas tax, which raised fees by 40 percent.

"The rate at which California has been losing people to other states has accelerated in the past couple of years, in part because of rising housing costs," said Jed Kolko, chief economist with employment website Indeed.com.

Outbound migration
He said the latest Census Bureau data, from July 2016 to July 2017, show "more people moved out of California to other states than moved in from other states. In other words, California lost people due to domestic migration."

During that 12-month period, California saw a net loss of just over 138,000 people, while Texas had a net increase of more than 79,000 people. Arizona gained more than 63,000 residents, and Nevada gained more than 38,000.

"You can literally have a lot of buying power for the dollar in Southern Nevada versus Southern California," said Christopher Bishop, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. "So it has been a major trend over the year, year and a half, and we're seeing it increase."

Bishop said some people who work for Silicon Valley companies are even working remotely from home in Las Vegas to avoid the higher housing costs in California. But he added, "Most of the people are here because of our growing job market and industries in Las Vegas — and it's not all about casinos anymore."

Data from United Van Lines show some of the most popular moving destinations for Californians from 2015 to 2017 were Texas, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Colorado. Other experts also said Nevada remains a top destination.

Regardless, some people still want to move to California but are finding it tough to do so because of the high cost of housing.

Trying to return
Michelle Lynn Ostroff, who left the Los Angeles area in 2013, now lives outside Cleveland, Ohio, with her daughter and wants to return to California to be closer to her friends and family. But she's been discouraged from returning so far due to monthly rental prices.

"I'm finding it very hard to make that happen, as finding a place that's affordable is tough," said Ostroff. The L.A. area "is definitely more than two times the amount of rent that I pay."

Indeed, California has five of the top 10 most expensive rental markets nationwide, according to industry tracker Zumper.

San Francisco ranks as the nation's most expensive rental market, followed by New York, according to Zumper's top 10 list. San Jose comes in third place, and Los Angeles in sixth place. Oakland and San Diego also made the top 10.

"For a lot of people, renting is the only option they have because it's tough to afford a house here," said Steve Feldman, a Keller Williams real estate agent in the L.A./San Fernando Valley region.

Expensive rents
The median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the Los Angeles area is $2,249, and in San Francisco it's almost $3,400, according to Zumper. The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Los Angeles area is $3,200 and in San Francisco about $4,500. By comparison, the median rent for a one-bedroom in Las Vegas is $925 and in Phoenix $945, and for a two-bedroom in Las Vegas $1,122 and in Phoenix $1,137.

"High housing costs are a challenge for employers, who need to offer workers enough so they can afford to live here," said Kolko. "Despite this, California is still hiring, and job growth was strong over the past year."

California's $550,990 median price statewide for an existing single-family home compares with the national median price of $247,800, according to the National Association of Realtors and its state association.

"People who have owned their house for quite a while can cash out with quite a nice bit of money in their hands,' said Feldman. "They can go to another state and buy a house for a fraction of what they have here and tuck away a lot of money and retire, work or bring their cost of living and overhead down."

Middle class leaving
Internal Revenue Service data would appear to show that the middle-class and middle-age residents are the ones leaving, according to Joel Kotkin, a presidential fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange, California.

"We know the actual net migration out of California has been growing," said Kotkin.

Furthermore, Kotkin believes the outmigration from California may start to rise among higher-income people, given that the GOP's federal tax overhaul will result in certain California taxpayers losing from the state and local tax deduction cap. "They are the ones who will tend to have the high property taxes and rely on writing it off," he said.

California is often criticized as one of the highest-taxed states in the nation.

Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed a 12-cent-per-gallon increase in the state's excise tax on gasoline, bringing the tax to 41.7 cents per gallon, or a 40 percent jump. Drivers in California already pay the highest average for gasoline after Hawaii.

'Highest taxes in USA'
Even Republican California Rep. Devin Nunes took a swipe at his state last week in a tweet, calling it out for the "highest taxes in USA that make it hard for people to afford to live there."

H.D. Palmer, a finance spokesman for California's governor, said "it's correct that our top marginal personal income tax rate is highest — 12.3 percent, not including the 1 percent surcharge for millionaires under Prop 63 (to fund mental health services)." However, he said "looking solely at those rates alone provides an incomplete picture."

Palmer said when including tax collections per $100 of personal income, though, California ranks number 10 nationwide, based on 2015 state and local revenue data tracked by the Federation of Tax Administrators. Minnesota, New York, New Jersey and North Dakota all come in higher in terms of tax burdens

California lost 9,000 business HQs and expansions, mostly to Texas, 7-year study says

Roughly 9,000 California companies moved their headquarters or diverted projects to out-of-state locations in the last seven years, and Dallas-Fort Worth has been a prime beneficiary of the Golden State’s “hostile” business environment.

Of the 9,000 businesses that he estimates disinvested in California, some relocated completely while others kept their headquarters in California but targeted out-of-state locations for expansions, Vranich found. The report did not count instances of companies opening a new out-of-state facility to tap a growing market, an act unrelated to California’s business environment.

Japanese automaker Toyota, which is consolidating its North American headquarters in Plano over the next couple of years, is one of those companies. The company is leaving Torrance, California, and two other locations to set up shop in Plano, where it will employ 4,000.

It’s typical for companies leaving California to experience operating cost savings of 20 up to 35 percent, Vranich said. He said in an email to the Dallas Business Journal that he considers the results of the seven-year, 378-page study “astonishing.”

Small city of Los Alamitos votes to opt out of California's sanctuary law, and its mayor says more will follow
The small city of Los Alamitos votes to exempt itself from California's so-called "sanctuary state" law, which took effect in January.
One critic of the opt-out move says the Southern California city will find itself "on the wrong side of history."
Los Alamitos' mayor says at least 13 other cities in the state are considering similar opt-out measures.The city also plans to file an amicus brief in support of the Trump administration's sanctuary lawsuit against California.

A new threat to California's "sanctuary state" law is coming from municipalities that are fighting the controversial legislation.

On Monday evening, the city council in Los Alamitos, a small city in Southern California, voted 4 to 1 to exempt itself from Senate Bill 54, also sometimes called the the "sanctuary state" law, which took effect in January. The state law, which is being challenged by the U.S. Department of Justice, bars local authorities from asking about the immigration status of people during routine interactions or participating in federal enforcement actions.

"This is important for us, for our city, for our community," Warren Kusumoto, the mayor pro tempore of Los Alamitos said Monday before the vote. He said the local measure was needed because of "a conflict between two governing documents — the Constitution of the United States and the state constitution itself."

Added Kusumoto, "We have a military base over here, we have contractors here who do business with the federal government. And I just feel that this body owes them some kind of certainty and guidance in enacting this ordinance. It really is for us to say we believe in the Constitution."

"The Los Alamitos City Council and Councilman Kusumoto in particular, are egregiously misinterpreting the U.S. Constitution and are on the wrong side of history," California Assembly member Wendy Carrillo, a Democrat who represents parts of Los Angeles, said in a statement. "Los Alamitos has an opportunity to protect its residents, but is instead siding with a racist and xenophobic Trump administration hell-bent on instilling fear in immigrants across the nation."

Los Alamitos, a city of about 12,000 people in Orange County, now finds itself in the spotlight with its challenge to California's sanctuary movement.

"I've gotten a lot of calls from other city council members and other mayors that are interested in being part of this," Los Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar said Tuesday. "They really want to know what was the process and are trying to get advice on how to go to the next steps."

A second vote is required for the measure to take effect, and that vote is expected April 16.

According to the mayor, at least 13 other municipalities in the state are considering similar opt-out measures on the sanctuary law. He wouldn't identify the cities but said they are located in the high deserts of Southern California as well as Orange and San Diego counties, all the way up to Northern California's Shasta County.

"It's great to see cities in California fighting back against the illegal sanctuary state and lawlessness of the California Democrats," said Assemblyman Travis Allen, a Republican candidate for governor whose Assembly district includes Los Alamitos.

However, immigration lawyer and University of Southern California law professor Jean Reisz said Los Alamitos' decision to opt out of SB 54, or the California Values Act, shouldn't legally support the federal government's overall position.

"Whether or not Los Alamitos opted out, that's not evidence that these laws are in violation of federal law," said Reisz. "It's just showing the city isn't in support of it or doesn't want to follow it." She also believes California's SB 54 and two other statutes that are part of the federal government's legal challenge against the state "don't violate federal law."

Meantime, the Los Alamitos mayor said he has not personally heard from state officials since passing the opt-out ordinance. "I would expect that they are definitely considering what their options are," he said.

In addition to passing the ordinance, the mayor said the city plans to file an amicus brief in support of the Trump administration's "sanctuary law" case against California. The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment.

The Trump administration's suit against California, filed March 6, contends that three different state laws passed last year to protect undocumented immigrants against deportation violate the U.S. Constitution.

The state's attorney general, Xavier Becerra, said at a press conference after the lawsuit was filed that California has the right under the U.S. Constitution "to decline to participate in civil immigration enforcement. California is in the business of public safety. We're not in the business of deportations."

Becerra's office said Tuesday, "We will continue to defend attacks against the Values Act."

The office of Gov. Jerry Brown declined to comment for this story.

In November, a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll showed more than 50 percent of Californians supported the "sanctuary state" law.

Iowa’s Employment Problem: Too Many Jobs, Not Enough People
State can’t find enough trainees for its programs; the Midwest is the only region where openings outnumber out-of-work job seekers

MASON CITY, Iowa—Manufacturers in northern Iowa are begging Terry Schumaker for freshly trained workers for their factories. The problem is he doesn’t have enough students to train.

“It’s not like we have the people beating down our door to apply,” said Mr. Schumaker, a dean at the North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City.

It is a problem playing out in many parts of the Midwest, a region with lower unemployment and higher job-opening rates than the rest of the country. Employers, especially in more rural areas, are finding that there are just too few workers. That upends a long-running view in Washington, D.C., and many state capitals, where policy makers often say the unemployed simply lack the skills to get hired.

Mr. Schumaker said Iowa has plenty of free programs to train workers. And Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is poised to sign Tuesday legislation that would provide an estimated $18 million for worker-training programs. But shrinking high-school classes leave fewer potential trainees.

Other states, like Indiana and Wisconsin, are undertaking similar moves. President Donald Trump has touted worker-training programs, and his daughter Ivanka visited Iowa in March to highlight the efforts.